Steven Universe

[Dr. Insomniac]

Got bored and decided to revisit this show for the first time in a while. I remember telling a friend that I dropped the show around the time White Diamond debuted, and his reaction was "So you dropped the show literally right before the finale?", which demonstrated how burned out I was when the show was ongoing. Then I remembered that conversation and though I should at least wrap up the show and watch enough of Future to see how everything resolved.

For what it's worth, SU's a show I can respect for at least pushing the boundaries of what you can do in children's television, and telling the audience that it's okay not to be okay and how to seek help when they feel lost. That some people, no matter their age or background, need to forgive themselves, apologize to others, and find space to heal if they want to grow.

But what I don't like is the execution, where uneven direction and voice direction (no disrespect to Callison, but I think he gets worse at figuring out how to play Steven as a sympathetic character, even worse in Future because the show needs him to do dramatic angst which he really struggles at) squeeze the life out of the concepts. And that takes me back to why I quit in the first place. Even without hiatuses getting in the way, I'm still firmly in the "Townie episodes bad" crowd. Because whenever the show tries to be about the humans, I notice how much the show flounders to write humans. They often come off as blobs with a social media profile bio defining their personality instead of people. One-dimensional characters in a show that demanded more three-dimensional thinking. And I'm not one to talk since I'm pretty socially inept, but this show where figuring out how to improve one's social skills and increase your emotional intelligence often appeared stunted at both fronts.

And all that might explain why the show's always received complicated discourse even from people who discuss the show in good faith. It's like an aspiring psychologist who wants to analyze the mind while simultaneously having a massive blind spot at how people tick. And I know you get people saying "Well, people in real life often don't make sense and often make bizarre life choices", and that's true, but real life people don't have a cinematographer or a director to illuminate why they do what they do. An asshole in real life isn't like an asshole in a story because the latter requires rhythm and nuance to make them intriguingly a cunt and not just some guy who gets on your nerves.

[Daikun]

I'm still firmly in the "Townie episodes bad" crowd. Because whenever the show tries to be about the humans, I notice how much the show flounders to write humans. They often come off as blobs with a social media profile bio defining their personality instead of people. One-dimensional characters in a show that demanded more three-dimensional thinking. And I'm not one to talk since I'm pretty socially inept, but this show where figuring out how to improve one's social skills and increase your emotional intelligence often appeared stunted at both fronts.

Thank you! This actually echoes a post that Lum and I made years ago when the show was still running.

...You know what? I'm gonna quote them anyway, for old time's sake (and going through the older posts in this thread really felt like a nostalgia trip).

I feel like we're at a point where the slice-of-life episodes should stop being a thing Or if they're going to do them, at least have them be poignant and meaningfully develop characters. Beach City episodes in particular have been the show's weakest link for far too long and I'm tired of having to wade through them to get to the stuff I actually care about.

Most of them have been doing that though.

Sure...during the show's earlier days, when Beach City was all we knew and Gemworld was barely a blip in everyone's mind.

Now we're five seasons in and we're so entrenched into Gemworld that Beach City episodes feel like a waste of time now. I don't give a shit about the twin sisters. I don't care about that smiley guy from the Zoltran episode or Onion's annoying friends. These people are meaningless in the main story. Steven's circle of friends from the earlier seasons are the only important characters in the show nowadays. When they try to add new characters or fail to develop existing ones, I'm left wondering, "Okay, when is Gemworld going to invade again?"

[Avaitor]

I like the Beach City episodes when they're a little sillier, but the only characters who feel particularly developed are Sadie and Lars, plus Connie and Greg if you stretch to count them. I understand that they're there to keep Steven grounded, but they don't really land, even with hindsight. Maybe especially with hindsight.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I get why the Beach City episodes need to exist in order to help fill in the human half of Steven's background, and the show requires that if it wants to make the Gem side have any contrasting pathos. But personally, it seldom worked in execution. They often compared poorly to other slice-of-life cartoons; the show's humor never particularly landed for me, and any human drama in them felt shallow compared to the A-plot. Reminds me of Degrassi where the infamous "Drake gets shot" school shooting episode happened, and the B-plot in that is just two of the adult characters buying a house. Why am I supposed to give a shit about real estate when kids are dying in the other plot? And why am I supposed to give a shit about Mayor Dewey's election campaign or Steven's enmity with Kevin late in the show? Yeah, there's worldbuilding and needing a breather, but there's also priorities. And the Beach City episodes never successfully connected with the bigger picture emotionally. It's fine that they never felt big, but they never felt personal either. And that's where they really fail for me.

[Peanutbutter]

Silly me, thinking the writers had an actual end point for the Beach City residents. In regards to Mayor Dewey, they had him lose to Nana What's-her-name so he'd end up at the Big Donut to replace Sadie and Lars.

Yeah, its not a good end to his personal arc. Not when they could have very easily have a brought a point to his arc by having him interact with Yellow or White Diamond by having him make a point to them about leadership. Man, did the finale arc to the main series and Future fumble the ball. 


Anyway, while I didn't mind the Beach City stuff at the time, my main complaint was the way too slow character development for Lars. I actually hoped they would use his apparent friendship with Ronaldo would be used to flesh both their characters but they never even referenced it at all.  Really wasted an opportunity there. I don't care about Lars becoming a space captain, but because his being so didn't play any part in taking down White Diamond and his break-up with Sadie off-screen in between the main finale and Future made just about all of whatever development he had if any completely worthless.    

[Dr. Insomniac]

It's funny that I watched a couple SU recap videos, and they all skipped over every Beach City subplot. And then I went on one of their channels, and noticed they had a longer recap video on Catdog of all shows.

[Daikun]

Coming soon to Discovery Family.